Entravision MediaDonuts- Helping Brands Achieve Their Performance, Branding Goals

Entravision MediaDonuts, founded in 2010, is an online advertising and technology company that helps advertisers achieve their performance and branding goals across digital media channels globally. It helps connect brands with their respective audiences through exclusive partnerships with fast-growing media platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, Criteo Tinder, Spotify, Anzu and more. 

In a confab with Pieter-Jan de Kroon, its co-founder and CEO and Vidhu Sagar, Managing Director - India, they speak to us about the company's operations in India and globally.

Excerpts:

Q1. Pieter, what brings you to India? What’s new and exciting for the company these days?

Pieter: Well, post-Covid times are exciting times all over and it’s no different for us at Entravision MediaDonuts - across all our offices across APAC, as also in India. I say that because we’ve been in the Indian market for 7 years. India was one of the earliest markets the original MediaDonuts expanded to after we began in Belgium in 2010. We’d always seen huge promise in India and accordingly invested in the market early with technology, people and all other resources. Now, I feel we are reaping all the rewards of that foresight and investment.

Earlier, we started by focusing on being a data-driven, performance marketing player with an advanced technology stack, including robust programmatic capabilities. We grew by working with clients directly as well as with a variety of agency partners, supporting them with tools, technologies, insights and solutions across a plethora of categories very successfully. In recent years, we’ve expanded our range of services to include the media representation business too.

Q2. MediaDonuts was acquired by Entravision about a year ago. Tell us about the experience, the learnings and the impact of the collaboration so far?

Pieter: Entravision and MediaDonuts is a complete win-win collaboration. Entravision had been looking to grow in newer markets of APAC where we have a strong presence. They were also largely in the broadcasting space and were looking to further expand into digital. Our plan is to grow synergistically, and symbiotically and early signs of that progress are very positive. Our clients as well as our team members get a much wider footprint to get connected with and learn best practices from.

Q3. Tell us about the journey so far for MediaDonuts in India? What’s been the learnings and values from the Indian market?

Pieter: India, in our experience, is an extremely competitive market and has always pushed us to innovate and optimise, wherever possible. It’s very quick to adopt new developments digitally. As a matter of fact, with its tech prowess and strong talent base, India has also been the hub of our APAC ad operations unit for a long thus it’s a key-value centre for us.

In terms of size and business volume too, we all know the massive potential here. So far, we think that we’ve just scratched the surface. Vidhu and his team have been expanding our business across multiple locations and particularly the Biddable solutions part of our business is growing exponentially.

Q4. In terms of technology and digital expertise, what’re your strengths/speciality? How do you see the Media Representation part of your business dovetailing into it?

Pieter: We were perhaps the early movers in the programmatic space. Our technology stack comprises a large number of platforms & features to deliver unmatched media solutions & attribution. We help advertisers achieve their media and business objectives from mobile app performance, lead generation & offline attribution to brand awareness campaigns optimised towards metrics such as target reach & viewability.

Vidhu Sagar: To your other question, the extension of Reseller part of our business can also be seen as us completing the loop in a way. On the one hand, we use sophisticated tools and technologies to go bulls-eye on our target audiences, and on the other, through our vastly popular apps and platforms, we help brands connect with highly engaged audiences in the most effective manner. This unique dual service portfolio of ours helps us deliver the fruits of our digital expertise to the last mile audience seamlessly.

Q5. How do you see the digital media business evolving over the next 5 years? Where would you see Entravision MediaDonuts position itself in the future?

Pieter: I think the overall industry is located at an interesting point right now. The newer media challenges are complex yet marketers are looking for unified, single-window solutions. Digital is at the centre of things as far as advertising is concerned. So, we are looking at newer developments in the future that will require us to stay very vigilant and proactively steer our clients and partners in the right direction. Our strategy is based on 3 main pillars which are Social media, Mobile App Performance & Commerce Media Solutions.

Vidhu Sagar: We have all noticed that consumer journeys are changing fast. Longer purchase journeys are crashing and becoming much shorter. Media options have proliferated, consumers are faced with an immense choice, and there’s fragmentation all around. Brands need both push messaging as well as relevant content that can be pulled. But most importantly, in this vastly complex digital stratosphere, we must recognise that Digital is not a silo anymore. It's something that's embedded into everything that we do. Seamlessly integrating everything. Yet, concurrently, severe challenges abound. In terms of audience privacy. Viewability. Ad fraud. And so on. But we at Entravision MediaDonuts are quite confident that as the industry’s foremost digital solutions provider, our holistic and optimised solutions would forever keep us a step ahead of the competition.